It has a halfway decent nightlife, and good bands tend to periodically play at the club The Tivoli (not to be confused with Tivoli in Copenhagen). It's not much for shoppers, but you can find the basics. There are often very good folk-festivals held at Fredriksdal, a large park/plantation in the area. Sofiero[?] was one of the royal family's country mansions back at the turn of the 20th century, and holds some very large gardens with a wide range of local (and other) plantlife, stretching down right to the shore.